Saturday 12 February 2011

Reflective Statement

I think I have been quite engaged and committed throughout the rotations. I have been interested to see what each rotation has to offer and to learn what it kind of work I would be doing if I specialised in that area.  I have learnt which aspects of textiles I enjoy and which ones I don’t enjoy so much. I like stitch and print, and would like to specialise in Print Plus.  I have learnt that although Knit really interests me, I don’t think it would suit me to specialise in this area. I would like to learn more about weave, however specialising in it would be too much for me as it is a very technical area. I find print and stitch more experimental and I feel you can do anything you like in those areas.
 I found it hard to write my blog in an informal way. I found it hard to get a good balance between writing descriptively and writing my own opinions on the tasks and exhibitions. I think that I have communicated my ideas well and I think everything is quite clearly laid out. I also think I have used relevant photos to illustrate my points. I have used a mixture of photos I have taken and photos found on the internet. This is because some time I wasn’t allowed to take photos in the exhibitions, or the lighting didn’t let me take good photos. To improve my blog, I would have written short entries as I went along giving an update on how my work was going in the rotations, rather than doing it all in one entry at the end. I do think my blog shows that I was engaged and interested in the work I was doing.

Monday 7 February 2011

Rotations

Print
For my first pop-up project, I was looking at objects which remind me of my Grandparents. I made collages based on my Grandfathers chess set and then used Photoshop to make it into a print. I changed the opacity and overlapped the images to create a layered effect. I changed the colours of some of the shapes to match other colours in my colour palette. There are things about my design which I would change. For example I wouldn’t overlap the images as much because there are sections where you can only see a small amount of the design underneath, which looks a bit messy. I would also make the top half of the design more like the bottom half as I think the very large scale chess pieces contrast well against the small ones. However, I like the colours I have used and I like the overall look of the design. I entered my design in the www.betafashion.com competition, and won. My design is currently on sale in Topshop, Oxford Circus.



















The screen printing part of the rotation was interesting. I didn’t realise how complex the process of making the dye and devorè chemicals would be. I had done a lot of screen printing before, but not using the light box to expose an image on the screen. I really like experimenting with this, as it allows you to do much more detailed images than using a stencil. I need to work on getting the prints to look sharper with cleaner edges. Although I don’t think the rotation actually went as well as I had hoped, I do want to specialise in Print as I think with practise with how to use the screens my work will dramatically improve. I also much preferred the digital print to the screen printing.
Stitch
I think the stitch rotation went the best for me out of all of the rotations. I think this is because stitch is where I feel more confident as I have done much more stitch in the past than anything else. I really liked my outcomes and I think I used the technique that the tutor gave me well, as I took the basic idea and pushed it much further to create something which was my own and was unique.  I was working from drawings I had done of the box for the chess board. There were a lot of regimented squares in my drawings with the look of a grid.  I thought this would be a good thing to try to incorporate into my stitch work and the paint marks in drawings lent itself well to lots of different coloured threads.


Weave
I enjoyed weave a lot more than I thought I would. Testing out the different structures to see which patterns would be created was interesting. I like using unconventional materials to create the weave. I was basing my weave on drawings I had done of fattening foods such as doughnuts and McDonalds. Because of this, I used objects like straws and plastics. The sheen on these materials linked well to the sticky icing on the doughnuts and the grease in the McDonalds. I also tried using thicker, woollier threads to link to the fluffy texture of the doughnuts.

Knit
I found it hard to get used to the knitting machines, and it took a lot of perseverance to try to create some samples which I liked. There were a few techniques which I really liked and got to grips with, such as making circles and doing the lace holes and ladders. I found it slightly frustrating when I had ideas for things I wanted to try but which I think were too complicated for what I could actually do. Knitting is also something that I think I could like once I got more used to the knitting machine. However, I do think I improved a lot throughout the week. I created a punch card design based on my drawings of waffles. Similarly to the stitch rotation, I was using a lot of squares but this was slightly more abstract.  The sample I made which I thought was the most successful was when I combined a Lycra thread with quite a thick non-stretchy thread. One side of the sample was very loose with lots of hooped threads, while the other was tight with my punch card design knitted into it. I like the contrast between the two opposite effects which you can get by using the same technique.

Aware: Art Fashion Identity

Kimsooja
Mumbai: A Laundry Field 2007-2008
The way of life for these people in Mumbai seems so removed from our lives in Britain. Yet, it is not nearly as distant as you might think. 10's of thousands of Laudrymen make their living by cleaning the fabric which is then used for many items of clothing on our highstreets. The video makes us think about the journey that our clothes go on before they reach us, and force us to think about the impact our need for fast and cheap fashion has on the rest of the world.






Marina Abramovic
Imponderabilia, 1977
Marina Abramovic's piece looked to explore the idea of the taboo of nudity. Ambramovic and her partner Ulay stood naked in the entrance to a gallery in Bolegna. They stood the perfect distance from each other as to force visitors to squeeze between the pair, most people unable to avoid contact. The video then recorded the visitors reactions. Some were unfaised, or at least tried to appear that way. Some laughed nervously and some rushed through as quickly as they could. It put the visitors in a situation which would usually be very personal as the visitors are in the artists personal space and have forced physical contact with their naked bodies. Despite this, the whole situation is very impersonal, as the visitors enter one by one and then are quickly replaced with the next visitor to the gallery without any introduction to the artists.
Gillian wearing RA- sixty minute silence 1996- authority of clothing, dynamics, ranked pose,
This piece felt like a very strange phenononem, although it is a video, being able to sit and stare at people and have them all gazing back at you seamed odd.The Video shows you about each persons personalities.As the time goes on they all go from having a stern and professional front for the camera, to slowly they all start to relax and their true personalities start to show through. You can look at them and see, do they have silly nervous facial twitches? Do they look around to see what each other are doing?  Do they  look down at themselves? Are they bored? Frustrated? Tierd? Looking away to avoid eye contact with the camera?

Sharif Waked
Chic Point 2003
Fashion for ireali checkpoints m
ade me feel uncomfortable. Pictures of men in awful life threatening situations are placed next to videos of light hearted/humerous fashion. I'm sure it was meant to be serious but it didn't seem that way to me. The fashion was interesting fashion though- suit jacket and shirt cut in half.